Venice: City of Dreams

Venice is defined by its canals and waterways, with many streets seeing water replace tarmac as the transport medium. Venice is particularly noted for its stunning architecture and deep artistic roots. The entire city is made up of six separate quarters which are populated by over 100 separate islands, 150 canals and over 400 bridges, a fascinating city like no other in the world. Venice is typically travelled in a Gondola, a style of boat typical to the city, a romantic way to explore the enigmatic city in all its splendour. Located on the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy, many people consider Venice – along with Paris – to be one of the most romantic cities in the world. Venice is built on 118 small islands that are connected by a maze of canals, bridges, and winding streets. The “City of Water” has inspired countless writers and artists and is a favorite destination for honeymooning couples throughout the world. Behind every corner of the city, a scene worthy of a postcard reveals itself. (traveleguides.com)

White swan of cities, slumbering in thy nest
So wonderfully built among the reeds
Of the lagoon, that fences thee and feeds,
As sayeth thy old historian and thy guest!
White water-lily, cradled and caressed
By ocean streams, and from the silt and weeds
Lifting thy golden filaments and seeds,
Thy sun-illumined spires, thy crown and crest!
White phantom city, whose untrodden streets
Are rivers, and whose pavements are the shifting
Shadows of palaces and strips of sky;
I wait to see thee vanish like the fleets
Seen in mirage, or towers of cloud uplifting
In air their unsubstantial masonry.
(Venice by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

Water and marble and that silentness
Which is not broken by a wheel or hoof;
A city like a water-lily, less
Seen than reflected, palace wall and roof,
In the unfruitful waters motionless,
Without one living grass’s green reproof;
A city without joy or weariness,
Itself beholding, from itself aloof.
(Venice by Arthur Symons )

The city floats no longer like a bait
To hook the nimble darting summer days.
The glazed and brittle palaces pulsate and radiate
And glitter. Summer’s garden sways,
A heap of marionettes hanging down and dangled,
Leaves tired, torn, turned upside down and strangled:
Until from forest depths, from bony leafless trees
A will wakens: the admiral, lolling long at ease,
Has been commanded, overnight ‘suddenly’:
In the first dawn, all galleys put to sea!
Waking then in autumn chill, amid the harbor medley,
The fragrance of pitch, pennants aloft, the butt
Of oars, all sails unfurled, the fleet
Awaits the great wind, radiant and deadly.
(Late Autumn In Venice by Delmore Schwartz)

Love, in this summer night, do you recall
Midnight, and Venice, and those skies of June
Thick-sown with stars, when from the still lagoon
We glided noiseless through the dim canal?
A sense of some belated festival
Hung round us, and our own hearts beat in tune
With passionate memories that the young moon
Lit up on dome and tower and palace wall.
We dreamed what ghosts of vanished loves made part
Of that sweet light and trembling, amorous air.
I felt in those rich beams that kissed your hair,
Those breezes, warm with bygone lovers’ sighs-
All the dead beauty of Venice in your eyes,
All the old loves of Venice in my heart.
(Night in Venice by John Hay)

‘Tis ev’ning now! ’ -the vesper-star
With smiles of beauty glads the sky,
And breathings from the light guitar,
Are blending with the minstrel’s sigh.

To stillness hush’d the purple wave
Reflects the cloudless heav’n above;
And not a sound floats o’er it, save
Sweet music from the lips of love;

And the full chorus clear, and deep,
From the gay gondoliers, who ply
Their oar’s with light, and measur’d sweep,
While mingling that rich melody.

And gently o’er the glitt’ring tide,
While gales of odour round them play,
There Adria’s dark-eyed daughters glide,
In pleasure’s search,-away, away!
(Venice by Eliza Acton)

The cinema in Venice is a long love story. Over 400 films and TV movies have been filmed in Venice. It is necessary to say that the atmosphere
at the same time romantic and of mystery of Venice lends itself perfectly to film making.

Visitors will not be surprised to discover that when Venetian see a movie set in Venice their main preoccupation is with spotting familiar places and criticising incongruences in the filming, often entirely losing the plot in the process. The same visitors may well enjoy a reminder of movies they have seen and enjoyed, and perhaps even (if they are in their DVD collection) care to watch them again before they arrive in the city. Two or three movies will stand out – Death in Venice (Visconti), Don’t Look Now (Roeg) and perhaps Casanova (Fellini). Buffs will be disappointed to find out (if they did not already know) that the last was entirely filmed at Cinecitta, lacking a single frame of the real Venice. It does, however, manage to convey the dark undercurrents and sense of otherworldly doom that directors pull out of this medieval city; it also does a pretty fair job of the 18th century historical background, if thoroughly Fellini-ised. Visconti also does a good job of his pre-WWI period, and Death in Venice too has an uncanny air hanging over it; much less, of course, than that of Don’t Look Now, which lurks in the mind years after seeing it. (italy-tourist-guides.it)

Venice has always been a mystical destination. Perhaps it is the intriguing architecture and the winding canals, or maybe it is the food and the Venetians themselves. The string that ties them all together are the views we have seen through the movies. The city’s intrigue has drawn such characters as James Bond (3 times), Indiana Jones, the talented Mr Ripley, and the Merchant of Venice. It has lured some of the greatest directors with its stunning scenery including Woody Allen, David Lean, Rob Reiner, Steven Spielberg. Orsen Wells and Fellini. It is also home to the world’s oldest film festival, which began in 1932.

Don’t Look Now (1973)

Don’t Look Now (1973)

Summertime (1955)

Summertime (1955)

Senso (1954)

Death in Venice (1971)

Othello (1952)

(Selection)

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Bread & Tulips (2000)

Dangerous Beauty (1998)

Everyone Says I Love You (1996)

The Wings of the Dove (1997)

- The Lost Moment (1947)
- Fellini’s Casanova (1976)
- Shark in Venice (2008)

Article: Venice Films
List: Filmed in Venezia
Wikipedia: Venice in Media

(sort by year)